[ { "id": 204480, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 112, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n101\n\nSee paras. 38 These feuds, often of long standing, persist to-day. 77-79 of Mr. K. M. A. Barnett's annual administrative report for 1955-56 as District Commissioner New Territories for a good instance of traditional hostility. For other cases see paras. 97 and 43 of the annual departmental reports for 1957-58 and 1958-59.\n\nSee Smith Village Life in China p. 286, also p. 222 \"The local Magistrates take care not to intervene too soon or too far, lest it be the worse for them. When the fight is over the officers put in an appearance, arrests are made, and the machinery of government recovers from its temporary paralysis\", and pp. 282-86 for a northern instance of clan violence.\n\n40 According to Dyer Ball Things Chinese (Hong Kong, Kelly and Walsh, 1903) p. 326 \"a dreadful internecine strife, in which 150,000 at least, perished, took place between the Hakkas and the Punteis in the south-western districts of the Canton province, from A.D. 1864 to 1866, and arms and even armed steamers, were procured from Hong Kong by both parties\". See also pp. 369-70 of B.C. Henry's Ling Nam (London, Partridge, 1886),\n\n41 From information supplied by elders of Ho Chung village who were at school during or before 1898.\n\n42 See the section on Disasters in the San On Yuen Chi.\n\n43 See stone tablet outside Tin Hau temple, Kat O, Tai Po district.\n\n44 From a stone tablet dated Ch'ien-lung 42/4/26 (1777) at Yuen Long Old Market.\n\n45 From a stone tablet dated Chia-ch'ing 7/3/23 (1802) at the Tin Hau temple, Kat O.\n\n46 From a stone tablet dated Ch'ien-lung 42/lucky month, lucky day (1777) at the Hau Wong temple, Tung Chung.\n\n47 From a stone tablet dated Tao-kuang 21/7/19 (1841) at Tin Hau temple, Peng Chau.\n\n48 From a stone tablet whose date is uncertain, at the Tai Wong temple, Yuen Long Market.\n\n49 Variously, as above.\n\n50 Reminiscences of Mr. TANG Kiu Fong of Fui Sha Wai near Yuen Long, in an article in the New Territories Weekly for January 1962.\n\n51 Tree spirits are quite common in the New Territories where many old trees have joss sticks and red paper inscriptions placed under them on a rough altar. There is, in particular, a very large old banyan tree at Long Kang a few miles east of Sai Kung Market which must surely be the oldest tree in the Southern District. This is visited regularly by devotees. From personal experience of every part of the old Southern District I can say with confidence that belief in tree and earth spirits still exists to-day, and might indeed be said positively to flourish.\n\n52 An ancestral temple is not open to the public: it is for the private use of the clan, for whom alone it has any meaning. Most villages of any age and consequence have ancestral temples, and in multi-clan villages", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207110, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n175\n\nfound in Wing Lung Wai where his portrait in military officer's uniform is to be seen.\n\nTang Ming Luen, the son of Tang Kuen Hin, was another military officer. He was a very powerful man with exceptional strength in his arms. When he was young and before he studied the military arts, he came across, one day, two water buffaloes fighting in a road. The people standing by were unable to pass and yet could do nothing to separate the animals. Tang Ming Luen, seeing this, seized each buffalo by the horn, wrenched them apart, and stopped the fight. It happened that a newly passed Kui Yan named Tang T'in K'ei, who came from Tung Kwun district, was visiting Kam T'in to worship at the ancestral hall, and, according to old Chinese custom, to report the good news of his degree to his ancestors. He witnessed Tang Ming Luen's feat of strength and greatly admiring him, he encouraged him to study for the army, giving him ten taels of pure silver sycee as a reward. Tang Ming Luen passed his Mo Sau Tsoi in the 25th year of Ka Hing, A.D. 1820, and the Mo Kui Yan in the following year.\n\nThere is another story that Tang Ming Luen dug up some hidden treasure in his orchard, which was near Sui T'au Ts'un. To the North of the garden, there was a large banyan tree and close by it a rock covered with creeping plants. On dark days, it was said that a light used to shine near this rock and at a distance, it appeared like a big white horse. One day, Tang told a labourer to dig a hole for planting a fruit tree in a corner of the garden where a lot of long grass was growing. In doing so, the man dug up a large earthenware jar with a lid on it, which was full of silver sycee. He seized a handful of them and started to carry them home, but at once, his eyes became dim-sighted and he was unable to see his way. Thinking that it must be a punishment for trying to take money that did not belong to him, the man put the coins back in the ground, and his sight recovered at once. When he told Tang of his discovery, Tang had the ground thoroughly dug, and many more jars, each full of silver coins, were found.\n\nTang Kuen Hin was born in the 20th year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1755, and he built a school called So Lau Yuen in Shui Tau Tsuen, one of the Kam T'in villages. This building has a curious carving inside, rather like the face of a clock with Roman lettering on it, the origin of it being unknown. Another building called Ch'eung Tsun Yuen was built by one of his descendants.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208114, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 153, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW - \n\nLONG ISLAND\n\n137\n\nthe top sawyer in the neighbouring sawpit, and we pass towards that smithy beneath a banyan tree. The sinuous roots of the tree clutch the rock and strain like the arms of some vegetable octopus, and there just below the hanging threads of aerial roots is a tilt, and a furnace. The anvil is curious enough. There is one of the orthodox Chinese pattern but the other is a shell from some field-gun, goodness knows where it was found.\n\nNow we are in the main street at its more irregular Eastern end, interrupted here and there by sharp right-angled turns, and small shops begin to line the way. On our right a coffin maker plies his trade, and his workshop has a most attractive \"line\" of coffins on exhibition which seem to tempt that Chinese grandfather getting on in life, and thinking of providing for the future. Europeans unconsciously avert our eyes from the varnished glory of huge specimens that look like four tree trunks grown into one, but grand-father regards it with quiet pleasure. Some more blacksmith's shops, and a flight of irregular steps, and we are on the terrace of the temple of the Heavenly Queen, already referred to. This terrace overlooks the bay, and is put to practical use, not only as a point of vantage, but also to dry fish and sweet potatoes, and some strange ambiguous stuff. We can see a junk hauled up on the slip-way which was screened by the houses-hitherto. For all the clumsy upperworks her lines are clean and smooth below water, and her big lifting rudder and centre board appeal to the yachts-men. Those cannon in the bows are not for ornament only, for these seas swarm with pirate junks.\n\nJust now we will not stop to examine the dusty interior of this temple. Instead we descend into the street once more and continue our westward way. Near this place is a small hospital, a series of clean and pleasant courts and pavilions supported by the Kai Fong. This body is the real ruler of the town, elected by street committees and containing representatives of each of the four tribes. In the street a good-natured crowd drifts along. There is a brown-faced fisherman ashore for a stroll, and to buy cordage or food. He loiters before the chandlers shops, and discusses all topics before coming to the real question of the price of that double block and sheave hanging in the dim place under the ceiling. There are villagers carrying loads of vegetables to the pier, shuffling along with two great loads, one at each end of a bamboo resting on a great callous patch on their shoulders. Women are carrying water", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209669, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 326, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "304\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nbe constructed to safeguard the tree which will become a roadside tree when the road widening is completed.\n\nIn order to maintain this rare species in Hong Kong, Agriculture & Fisheries Department has collected seed from these two veteran trees and this has been germinated and used to grow several hundred seedlings. These have been planted out in a variety of sites in the Country Parks where many of them are now well established. The most successful is a group of four trees growing near the head of Jubilee Reservoir which have reached a height of 6.7m and a girth of 0.37m in ten years.\n\nThe former Village Representative, Mr. Man Tse-leung, whose picture appeared with the original article, is now 86 years old. Though not able to walk, he enjoys good health and still has a good memory. He recalled that during his childhood, the trees had already attracted the attention of a lot of people, from dignitaries to thieves. A former Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Cecil Clementi, had once made a special visit to the village to see them while serving as District Officer in the New Territories early this century. The unique quality of their timber for making wooden bracelets had caused a greedy craftsman named Lau to come over 50 miles from Po On County. However, when he started cutting the branches, he fell onto the ground. With his back broken, he had to abandon his illicit attempt. Mr. Man added that it was because of their \"fung shui\" value, that these two trees and several other mature camphors (Cinnamomum camphora) and banyan (Ficus spp.) were spared from the widespread felling during the Japanese Occupation from 1941 to 1945. The present Village Representative, Mr. Man Tat-pui, welcomed our proposal to plant new young seedlings in the village environs to replace the old trees.\n\nThe name of the Tai Hang Village is of some historical and geographical interest. The official publication A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories gives the following description:-\n\n\"Tai Hang (†); KVO65877; 534212; also known as Cha Hang (i), sometimes (#); a large village in three", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209870, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 129, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "107\n\nfamous for the 8½ tons of Persian opium found there about 1921, guarded by an armed sampan and hidden in a cave. Kau Yi Chau (“Armchair Island\") is larger and higher. The sea all round is polluted with Hong Kong refuse tipped from sanitary barges.\n\nFurther on to the east is Lamma: also rendered \"Nam A” (\"Southern Forked Island”). This is an island of remarkable shape. Its best harbour is in the north-west, Yung Shu Wan (\"Banyan Tree Bay\"): all the others have defects: Luk Chau Wan (\"Deer Island Bay\"), Sokkwu Wan (\"Dragnet Bay\") or Picnic Bay, and Tung O (“East Haven”) are all too exposed in winter, Tai Wan (\"Big Bay\") and the other landing places on the west coast are surf-beaten in summer, and Tung O is more liberally supplied with reefs than any other bay in the islands except Ma Wan. Sham Wan (\"Deep Bay\"), a beautiful, deep, drowned valley, gets the swell nearly all the year round; besides, there is hardly any cultivated land by it. Hence Yung Shu Wan, with well-watered plains, villages, and low hills behind it, is the island's only commercial harbour: it has a sampan ferry to Aberdeen, the island's real commercial centre.\n\nLamma specialises in orchards, chiefly of papaya; water buffaloes, tigers and other evil beasts are unknown there, and the island seems prosperous, though animal diseases and shortage of water often cause losses. An interesting point is that some of the land here was used as endowments for what we would call \"fellowships\" for scholars in Namtau under the old order of things.\n\nSince 1932 Lamma has attained much fame as the leading site of the prehistoric culture of the South China coast, as the result of my finding large quantities of ancient pottery in good condition, and the later researches of Father Finn, who published his results in detail in the \"Hong Kong Naturalist\".25 The earliest glazed pottery in China comes from here. Another site nearby has rougher, more primitive objects than the bronzes and ornaments of Tai Wan; and a hill near Yung Shu Wan forms a third site closely related to the other two. At least four other sites have been found on the island, besides stone axes on the hills. The modern population probably does not exceed 1,000,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209891, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 150, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "128\n\nlabourers' homes as well. The shrines to be described were connected with the villages of the Shau Kei Wan area, and not with Tung Tai Kai which, as the market town that served local villagers from the surrounding district had its own temples and shrines, managed by the market town shopkeepers, as at Ap Lei Chau.30\n\n(1) Nam On Fong ()\n\nThe management committees of the shrines to be described mainly comprised land people from the villages in which they were situated, and not residents of the market town. The villages looking to the first of these shrines for protection, were collectively known as Nam On Fong. At the census of 1901 the main village of this area, Tsin Shui Ma Tau, had a recorded population of 740,37\n\nThe shrine, another Fuk Tak Kung, has an interesting history. In the first place, though old, its origins are in some doubt. Until its first removal about 1920 it was located under a large banyan tree beside a stone pier. This pier and the footpath leading to it had been built by the grandfather or great-grandfather of two of my elderly informants (born in the late nineteenth century and interviewed in 1968-70). These men had been local quarry masters and required a pier from which to ship their stone. The shrine was said to have been established after a man had recovered an image from the sea and placed it under the banyan tree at this spot.\n\nUsing local contacts, I managed to trace the story to its source. The father of a local boatbuilder was the person responsible, though at the time of the find he had been only fourteen years old. A check on the ages of father, son and other relatives involved in the event showed that were this story true, it took place no earlier than 1890. This does not tally with the inscription on an incense burner in the modern Fuk Tak Kung. This is dated April-May 1877, but though it does not state that it was presented to Fuk Tak Kung, the managers state firmly that it has always belonged to the god and his shrine.\n\nPage 150\n\nPage 151", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210757, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "91\n\nlanterns affixed on the posts shone on Shek O and Tai Long Wan people.\n\nThe priests and ritual representatives visited the faan-gon posts and made offerings three times a day in a procession called haang-chiu (audience procession). When I followed one of those processions in Shek O, however, I discovered that not all four of the faan-gon posts were erected at the corners of the settlement. The first faan-gon post in Shek O visited by the haang-chiu procession was between the school playground and the quarters of the cleansing unit of the Urban Services Department. One of the local members of the procession volunteered the information that the post was set up there because three years ago a fatal accident took place at the spot. Two young boys who lived in the quarters of the cleansing unit were playing there when a stone pillar fell down suddenly and killed both of them.\n\nV. The local gods\n\nThe Tin Hau was represented by her wooden image at the centre of the altar. Behind the image was a piece of red paper on which the titles of ten local deities were written. With the exception of the Sea Goddess (shui sin) of the small temple at one edge of Shek O Beach, they were Baak-gung and Daai-wong earth gods of Tai Long Wan, Shek O, and Seung Wai. One of them, styled jang-paang daai-wong (earth god of the stakenets), was a reminder of the former fishing activities of the local residents. Many others had probably existed for the protection of villagers in fishing and farming. The change in land use is evident in the reply given by Mr. Wong, the local leader, when asked where the god's place was. He said, \"Below the number 10 alley of the Westerners' residences of Tai Long Wan,\" linking the god with the change that had taken place in the locality. He gave the same description for the location of another god, the Earth god of the Banyan Tree Place. For the Seung Wai daai-wong, he explained that it was below no. 1 alley, which had become a residential area for Westerners. It used to be the villagers' settlement which was removed to Shek O for the construction of the golf club. There were also three gods whose names were not known to Mr. Wong. He believed that those were from Hok Tsui, the village which joined in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211999, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 414, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "nine Fung Shui sites in the Dragon's Mouth (ref. EMPZ-). The story goes that the Ho family used to worship there twice every year, at the Spring and Autumn rituals. They required all the boat-people to use their vessels to make a floating bridge, so that the descendants could go to and fro to worship at the grave. It was solely because the boat-people feared the power of the Ho family that they obeyed their commands. Because of this, the boat-people all considered for a long time whether it was possible to destroy the Fung Shui. The result was that they employed a Taoist of great magical powers. He dug a hole on one side to allow him to inspect the bone-urn. He saw that the bone-urn was completely wrapped around with the roots of a banyan tree. The Taoist realised that the name of the site corresponded with the reality. He therefore cut away all the banyan roots. However, the next day, when he went back to inspect, he found that they were all back as before. In the same way, he cut the roots away on a number of occasions, only to find that they immediately returned to their original form. Eventually, the Taoist took a black dog and a black cock and sprinkled their blood all around the cut back banyan roots. In this way the Golden Bell Hanging on a Silken Thread was totally destroyed, for the roots could never grow back into their original form. After this, Ho, the Minister of the Left, found it very difficult to retain either his position or his life, and the boat-people never again had to suffer the hardship of building a floating bridge\". \n\n389 \n\nP.H. HASE \n\nNOTE \n\nJournal of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 28, pp. 198-203. \n\nTHE WHITE TIGER \n\nWhenever an opera performance is to be staged in a venue where no operas have ever been staged before, it is customary for the actors to stage a short piece called \"The White Tiger\" (白虎), first, before any of the advertised operas. This piece involves a fight between a man dressed in black and an actor dressed as a “white” (usually yellow) tiger.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212426, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 368, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "345\n\nCollar, Hugh, CAPTIVE IN SHANGHAI: A STORY OF INTERNMENT IN WORLD WAR II, Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1990. xvi + 160 pp. Index. Hugh Collar, unofficial head of the British in Shanghai after the Sino-Japanese War became a part of World War II, wrote an account of the international community under Japanese internment. This is a rambling but often interesting account, edited by Pauline Woodroffe.\n\nAN\n\nLiu Binyan, CHINA'S CRISIS: ESSAYS FROM INTELLECTUAL IN EXILE, translated from the Chinese into English by Howard Goldblatt, Cambridge (Mass): Harvard University Press, 1990. xxv + 50 pp. Index. This volume comprises a series of five lectures given at Harvard in 1988-89 by one of China's most eminent dissidents. Liu, who had suffered for his intellectual principles during the 1950s as well as during the Cultural Revolution a decade later, was expelled from the Communist Party and was banned from publishing. There is a Foreword written by Professor Merle Goldman.\n\nMehrotra, Santosh K., INDIA AND THE SOVIET UNION: TRADE AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, Notes. Bibliography. Index. As the title indicates, this work is about the economic relationship between the Soviet Union and India (an industrialized planned economy and a developing market economy). The period covered is between 1955 and just before the book went to press.\n\nASIAN DEVELOPMENT OUTLOOK 1992, 1992. 313 pp. This study of economic development in the Asian countries containing a large amount of information with useful statistics, was published by the Asian Development Bank and Oxford University Press.\n\nDardess, John W, CONFUCIANISM AND AUTOCRACY: PROFESSIONAL ELITES IN THE FOUNDING OF THE MING DYNASTY, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983. 358 pp. with 1 map. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. Professor Dardess argues that, far from being a 'socially indeterminate category', the body of elitist professional Confucian public servants consciously created a highly centralized state at the beginning of the Ming dynasty, leading to five hundred years of autocracy in China.\n\ndeBary, William Theodore, FIRST ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS: A", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212565, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "NOTES\n\n99\n\nI\n\nExcept for those documented otherwise, all the figures presented in this paper are obtained through researches in published and unpublished sources, including those from Xinhua News Agency, year books, newspapers and magazines, personal interviews and so on.\n\n2 Records of CFEIC\n\n3 See Samuel S. Kim, ed. China and The World: Chinese Foreign Policy in the Post-Mao Era (Boulder: Westview Press, 1984) for a discussion of a number of cases reflecting this.\n\n4 John K. Fairbank, China Bound (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), p. 338\n\n5 USIA: Its Work and Structure (USIA), p. 2\n\n6 Ying Hua, \"**Youhao, reqing, guangcai**\" (\"Friendly, Enthusiastic and Glorious\"), Guangming ribao (Guangming Daily), 19 September 1973, p. 4\n\n7 For further information on the definition, see Hu Qiaomu, \"Dangqian sixiang zhanxian de ruogan wenti\" (\"Some Issues of the Current Ideological Work\") in Jianchi sixiang jiben yuanze, fandui zichan jieji ziyouhua (Uphold the Four Fundamental Principles, Oppose Bourgeois Liberalization) (Beijing: Renmin Press, 1987), pp. 158-198\n\n8 In this respect, one may think that Chinese performing artists were like athletes in that they were more competition-oriented than performance-oriented. This was especially true of opera singers and ballet dancers. While quite a few of them, some of whom had the experience of being trained by foreign artists, won international competitions, there was seldom opera or ballet staged in China.\n\n9 Records of CPAA\n\n10 Personal interview with Wu Fenghua, 31 March 1987\n\n11 Records of CPAA\n\n12 Personal interview with Zhongyan, 14 March 1988\n\n13 Km, p. 115\n\n14 Tang Tsou, \"Political Change and Reform,\" in The Cultural Revolution and the Post-Mao Reforms (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), p. 223\n\n15 Ibid., p. 224\n\n16 Li Jian, \"Gede yu Quede\" (\"Praise and Shame\"), Hebei Wenyi (Hebei Literature and Art), June 1979\n\n17 Hebei ribao (Hebei Daily), 7 August 1979\n\n18 Guangming ribao (Guangming Daily), 20 July 1979\n\n19 Merle Goldman, \"Intellectual Dissent in the People's Republic of China,\" in Yu-ming Shaw, ed., Power and Politics in the People's Republic of China (Boulder: Westview Press, 1985), p. 294\n\n20 Ibid.\n\n21 Liu Binyan, for example, said: \"when literature mirrors what is undesirable in life, the mirror itself is not to be blamed, instead, disagreeable things in real life should be spotted and wiped out.\" For more of his view, see Beijing Review, No. 52, 28 December 1979, p. 13.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212663, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 217, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "198\n\nin car headlights on Mount Nicholson in the 1980s.\n\nEven in a built-up District like Central wildlife abounds, and the large flock of common crested mynah make a tremendous noise in the leafy banyan, between Murray Car Park and the Bank of America Tower, before going to sleep in the evening.\n\nWhat have you spotted recently? Members would be interested to hear.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213123, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 191, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "173\n\nwas destroyed in the 1937 typhoon, it was rebuilt as an imposing two-storey building. Even in the 1920s, however, it dominated the seafront of the town, facing the sea between the two piers (the public pier to the west, and the Customs pier to the east), separated from the Tin Hau Temple by an irregular strand with two huge banyan trees.\n\nAt the foot of the public pier, between the Customs station and the Tin Hau Temple, was a small kiosk where tickets for the Sha Yue Chung ferry were sold. The Shap Yeuk let the operation of the ferry, and the right to collect the fares, every so often. In the 1930s the fare to Sha Yue Chung was high - 480 per person, plus extra for goods carried. This was because of the difficulties involved in the ferry travelling from Kuomintang to rebel-held territory, and later because the ferry had to travel very close to, or even across, Japanese lines. Much of the freight carried at this date was smuggled kerosene. The other ferries - to Kat O and Kuk Po - collected fares on board the boat.\n\nThe fish laans were just a paved floor, with a tiled roof supported on brick pillars. There were no walls. Each of the fish laans occupied a part of the floor. When the fishing boats arrived in the early morning, the fishermen would carry their catch inland, past the Customs Station, into the laans, to sell to the laan or laans with which they were accustomed to deal. Some of the laans only dealt in the wholesale trade, and only had offices and stores apart from their share of the trading floor. Others also had retail shops in the town.\n\nAs well as the fish faans, there was another wholesale market in the town in the 1920s. This was the grain market. This was, like the fish faans, just a paved floor with a tiled roof supported on brick pillars. It stood beside the sea, just behind the Man Mo Temple. Villagers with grain to sell would carry it here on market days (the 1st, 4th, and 7th days). The grain dealers from the market would come here and buy, and carry it to their stores in the town, either to sell there by retail, or else to arrange to have it carried to Sham Chun. The town weigh-beam was kept here, in a shed next to the market – it was normally only used by people buying or selling grain, who paid a few cents for the use of it.\n\nOpposite the grain market was a row of blacksmiths' shops. These were built here, separated by an alley from the other buildings of the town, for fear of fire.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213279, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "81\n\nThe vegetation on the Peak corresponds to the fung shui woods (where stillborn babies are sometimes buried) positioned at the rear of traditional, symmetrical New Territories' villages. In addition to acting as, so called, 'green dragons', untouched shelter belts and firebreaks, these fung shui groves, which may house a temple or a shrine, are considered almost sacred. These woods also act as barriers against malevolent forces. They are the homes of spirits and gods and are considered essential for the wellbeing of a village.\n\nThere are well over 300 fung shui woods in Hong Kong (Webb, 1995:44), and, although the largest covers as many as 14 hectares they average two hectares each. Historically, they provide materials for culinary, medicinal, ceremonial and structural use, if, for instance, a length of timber is required for repairs to the temple, or bamboo carrying poles are needed for weddings or funerals. Banyans, heung (incense) trees, camphor, bamboo, rose-apple, longan, lychee, mango and breadfruit, some of which play important parts in Chinese folk religion, are common in fung shui coppices. One of the best examples of a fung shui wood is in Shing Mun Country Park, at the north end of Jubilee Reservoir. This wood is reputed to be around 400 years old (Dudgeon, 1994:73).\n\nA well-sited village is not only protected from the elements, such as typhoons, heatwaves and pollution, by fung shui groves. Such a site is also sheltered by hills and spurs. In turn, graves are situated out of sight on a hill behind the village. And so, as is written in Ecclesiastes 1,4:\n\nOne generation goeth and another generation cometh\n\nthe earth abideth for ever\n\nBut sacred woods are not just found in Chinese communities. In India, Nepal, Bhutan and Japan, as well as in various parts of Europe, people have their groves where religious ceremonies are performed. The druids in ancient Britain, who were also bards and soothsayers, had sacred woods. Oaks in Sherwood and other forests were the abodes of spirits. The fruit of the oak, the acorn, was also sacred. So was the mistletoe.\n\nBut even in Hong Kong views can change and modernisation can take its toll. In the mid-1990s, a venerable fung shui banyan in a Lantau village was felled merely to improve television reception.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213375, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 197, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "184\n\nIn its strict forms, fung shui does not involve the presence of a deity but in the rural villages in the New Territories, especially in the Hakka villages, a belief in fung shui is intimately interwoven with an older animistic belief in earth gods and tree spirits. Fung shui is intimately interwoven with the Tao and is an aspect of popular Chinese belief systems,\n\nThe comments and examples given in this account are taken from a doctoral thesis in social forestry carried out by the author on fung shui woods in the New Territories from 1990 to 1994 (Webb, 1995b). The study identified 337 fung shui woods in the New Territories from air photographs, examined the botanical composition of 60 woods, and carried out in-depth interviews with village representatives in 20 villages to determine how villagers used and perceived their woods today.\n\nOf great importance to the fung shui of a village are the shrines to the village spirits and earth gods. The earth gods have the generic name poo sat (good spirit), but may also have their own local names. For example, the earth god's name at the Tai Wong shrine of Ma Mat Wai near Fanling is 'Hin Tan'. The earth gods are territorial because they are thought of as spirits of the locality (genii loci) in which their shrine is situated. They are typically located by a large boulder or venerable banyan tree. The earth god, in its various forms, is seen as the presiding deity of the village, its protector and arbiter of disputes. Villagers will make offerings to them in return for favours at specific times (Burkhardt, 1958)\n\nThe earth gods may also be known generically as Tai Wong (great king) and Paak Kung (paternal great uncle), and are associated with shrines also bearing these names. At first sight and without local knowledge, it is often difficult to distinguish the two, but generally the former type of shrine is the more elaborate. The wealthier the village the more elaborate is the shrine, but no study has yet been done on styles of shrine in the New Territories. Just as village houses were constructed by travelling groups of masons (Hase, 1992), so village shrines may also have been built in the same manner, so that within any one district the shrines may display the same style of design.\n\nA Tai Wong shrine may have its own stone or cement platform with a similar \"armchair\" shape to that seen in the layout of traditional graves. On the altar, the focus of the shrine, often a special stone or inscribed plaque, may be provided with a roof. To one side of the shrine there may", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213376, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "185\n\nbe a stone or brick fireplace in which paper money and other paper offerings are burned. Occasionally a Tai Wong may be dedicated to a particular deity, such as at Pak Kung near Sai Kung which has its Tai Wong dedicated to Tin Hau, protective goddess of fishermen. A large village may have its own Tai Wong, but it may sometimes be shared with other neighbouring villages of the same lineage, as occurs with the Lam Tsuen villages.\n\nThe Paak Kung shrines, of lesser importance, are more simply built, often no more than an \"archway\" arrangement of stones upon a flat rock, with perhaps wooden boards on which paper scrolls are pasted. In any village there would normally be several Paak Kung. The village of Pat Heung, for example, has around ten Paak Kung and earth god shrines.\n\nIn some cases, especially with the lesser ranked Paak Kung, the shrine may be the tree itself and is only marked by the presence of joss-sticks and porcelain cups for rice wine offerings, sometimes on a flat stone at the base of the tree. Examples of such tree spirit shrines may be seen by the large banyan trees behind Sheung Ling Pei, and the enormous camphor trees, Cinnamomum camphora, behind Sha Lo Wan, both on north Lantau. In both cases, the surrounding fung shui woods were felled by the Japanese during the Occupation in the Second World War, with the exception of these trees, which are now venerated for having \"saved\" the village. The camphor tree at Sha Lo Wan is one of the biggest in the Territory, with a girth of over seven metres.\n\nIn the New Territories, the fung shui tree par excellence is the banyan, Ficus microcarpa, which symbolizes longevity, fecundity, and perseverance in the face of adversity. Apart from its natural resilience in the face of typhoons, the ability of the tree to survive in an environment where wood has been at a premium is explained by Ng (1983). \"Its wood is gnarled and so cannot be used as timber, it will not flame and so cannot be used for firewood. Its very lack of useful properties ensures its invulnerability and survival. It is often favoured as a single fung shui tree, when it becomes the home of a local tree spirit and is given great respect and provided with offerings, so that it often appears to be a form of tree worship. The \"grandfather\" tree at Kuk Po is an example.\n\nSometimes the fame of a particular tree-dwelling earth god extends beyond the locality of the village. Near the village of Lam Tsuen, a venerable banyan is claimed to have a spirit which is especially efficacious.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213377, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 199, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "186\n\nin matters relating to personal relationships. During Lunar New Year, hundreds of people come from all over the Territory, even from as far away as Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island, to offer prayers at the foot of the tree and to throw red and yellow prayer flags, attached to strings weighted with stones, up into the branches.\n\nOnly in four villages was it claimed that the special trees were the home of earth gods. At Lin Au, the large, old Cinnamomum trees were planted by the villagers when the settlement was founded in order to protect the shrine that was built to honour the ancestors. The earth gods have their home in the trees and also roam about in the wood. Lin Au and Sheung Tsuen were the only cases found where this was said to happen, but it may be that such a belief could have been more widespread in the past. At Pak Kong, a grove of six trees protects the Tai Wong shrine to Tin Hau beside which is a smaller Paak Kung that is used to worship the earth gods who live in the trees. Kuk Po is also an example of an ancestral tree which is also the home of the local earth god.\n\nIn most cases, however, the tree adjacent to the shrine is there simply to provide shelter. In the study carried out by the author, a variety of reasons were given as to why specific trees were protected and the commonest reason given was that the trees protected the important shrines of the village, which were both Tai Wong and Paak Kung shrines. The shrines were situated at important fung shui locations, usually protecting the entrance points of the village from loss of chi (good luck or prosperity) and affording protection from undesirable forces. The spirits live in the shrines rather than in the trees themselves. For example, at Tai Om, camphor trees protect each of the three Paak Kung shrines in the village and trees protect four of the principal shrines in Man Uk Pin. Such trees are commonly banyan, or camphor, although other species may be used. The commonest shrine trees found during the study were;\n\n \n Ficus microcarpa\n Banyan\n 19\n \n \n Cinnamomum camphora\n Camphor\n 13\n \n \n Euphoria longan\n Longan\n 5\n \n \n Gironniera nitida\n \n 5\n \n \n Litchi sinensis\n Lychee\n 4\n \n\nin addition to 26 individuals of other less common species.\n\n19", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213378, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 200, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "187\n\nIn Ho Sheung Heung, the 'guarding star' at the entrance to the village is a bamboo. However, it is not always the case that a tree growing beside a shrine has any relationship to that shrine. At Ho Sheung Heung trees besides the southern Pauk Kung have no fung shui significance and have simply grown up there. At Tar Om trees near the main shrine have grown up in the seventy years since the shrine was built and have little, if any, fung shui importance. None of the villagers questioned thought that the fung shui woods had any sacred or spiritual value outside their fung shui importance.\n\nAnother important reason for the protection of large, old trees was that they had been planted by the ancestors. Examples are at Man Uk Pin, Ma Mat Wai, Ping Kong, and Ma Tsuek Leng. Few of these trees were individually venerated except for the 'grandfather tree' at Kuk Po which was planted by the founders of the village to honour the local earth gods.\n\nVillages often have examples of many types of fung shui tree. An example is the village of Sheung Wo Hang which has an inviolable fung shui wood in which all vegetation is protected, in addition to ancestorally planted trees which guard particular shrines and which reinforce certain fung shui locations, as well as earth god trees without shrines.\n\nIn some cases, shrines may not be dedicated to an earth god. At She Shan Tsuen in Lam Tsuen valley, a small shrine at the edge of the fung shui wood makes the spot at which hunters would gather to make offerings before the hunt. There is a parallel here with those shrines in the sacred forests of Nepal at which hunters gather to worship (Mansberger, 1991).\n\nBoth Tar Wong and Paak Kung shrines guard the important places and fung shui points of the village, such as the wells, irrigation dams, \"dragon veins\" and especially the entrances to the village. The latter are often marked by a Tar Wong shrine. Where a path or road leaves a village, invariably where an approaching path curves around the end of a fung shui wood, the site is known as \"the mouth of water\", (the flow of a road symbolising water). The site is often associated with a clump of bamboo, a large rock or a large camphor or banyan tree, or sometimes all three, known as a \"guarding star\" in fung shui terms, as it guards against excessive outflow of chi from the village.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213831, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "156\n\nIn recent years, mass emigration to the cities has further weakened the lineage tradition at some villages. Only the Mos at Mok Ka and the Los at lower Shek Lau Po seem to have maintained the status of their lineages. As the strongest lineage in Tung Chung, the Mos managed to rebuild their ancestral hall, the Mo-yu-t'ang, and continue to visit the graves of their focal ancestors collectively. As for the Lo lineage at lower Shek Lau Po, the reconstruction of their ancestral hall, the Lo-yu-chang t'ang, in the 1970s, as a centre for ancestor worship, contributed to the reinforcement of lineage identity. Nevertheless, the majority of Tung Chung's villagers worship their ancestors inside their family halls.\n\nThe worship of the earth god in Tung Chung also occurs on a small scale. Symbolically, the earth god stands for the spirit of the village at which he is located, and is represented usually by a rock at an open-air shrine or by an old banyan tree. Variously known as Ta-wang (great king) or Po-kung (lord or paternal great-uncle), the earth god guards a village at its entrance or rear. As a guardian deity at the basic level of rural organization, the god helps to mark the territorial line between villages. In Ngau Au, for example, four Po-kungs are located there at both the entrance and the rear of the village. Three of them, as a village elder confirmed, are more than three hundred years old. At Mok Ka, earth gods are enshrined, two by the stream and one at the village entrance, and one at the rear of the village. As the oldest village, Shek Mun Kap has the largest earth god, represented by a giant boulder.\n\nOn the 1st and 15th of every lunar month, during the major festivals, and on the earth gods' collective birthday, Ta-wang or Po-kung are offered sacrifices. On auspicious days of their choice, villagers also come to pray for the god's blessings and repay his protection. The ceremonies concerned include the display of wine and animal sacrifices in front of the shrine, the spraying of the wine on the ground, the burning of paper offerings, and kowtow to the god. Compared to ancestor worship, the earth god worship functions more directly to enhance the village identity, especially among individual members of a mix-lineage community. In Tung Chung, however, the ceremony has never taken the elaborate form of the tso-she (doing the she), i.e., special collective rituals and celebratory activities consisting of a feast in honour of the neighbourhood god at various times of the year. Being", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214454, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 312, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "279\n\n1970\n\n1971\n\n1973\n\n1974\n\n1977\n\n1978\n\n1986\n\n1989\n\n1994\n\n1995\n\n1997\n\n1st Bttn. The Royal Welch Fusiliers at Gun Club.\n\nDeath of \"Billy\" Regimental Goat on 8 June. Buried behind Church. (The \"gravestone\" was salvaged, prior to excavation work for the new PLA Hospital, & removed to ASD Property Services Branch Antiquities Store at APB Centre in Cheung Sha Wan. No remains of \"Billy\" were found.)\n\n1st Bttn. The Black Watch at Gun Club.\n\n1st Bttn. The Royal Hampshire Regt. at Gun Club,\n\nAlanbrooke Block (British MQs) & Infants' School (Block 27) demolished. New Gurkha MQs, Temple, Clinic & School build started. 10 Int & Sec Coy moved into Colony Club (Block 36) from Argyle Street Camp.\n\nGurkha Transport Regt. & Gurkha Signals moved into Gun Club from Shamshuipo Camp. Victoria Junior School moved over from Victoria Barracks.\n\nNew Classroom built at Gun Club Primary School. Skeleton said to date from Japanese occupation unearthed during excavations.\n\nSevere flooding on May 2 to MT compound causing considerable damage to vehicles, buildings and equipment. Compound again flooded on May 20 during Typhoon Brenda.\n\nColony Club (Block 36), St. Eligius' Church, and the old gun shed (Block 29) demolished to make way for the new military hospital. Banyan trees transplanted to elsewhere in the barracks also to the new Kowloon Walled City Park.\n\nBarracks vacated by the British Army and handed over to Hong Kong Government.\n\nBarracks occupied by People's Liberation Army following handover of Hong Kong to China.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214706, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 121, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "85\n\nof tun fu ceremonies which, collectively, were said to be the largest of their kind ever held in Hong Kong.*\n\nAfter referring to the Chinese almanac, Tung Sing, believed by some to be the world's oldest, continuous publication, an auspicious day, the 7th day of the Second Moon in the Year of the Rabbit, was selected for holding the main tun fu ceremony. The Author was invited. Thirty-six committee representatives attended with some of the larger of the 26 villages taking part having two representatives. Previously, other smaller tun fu ceremonies for individual villages at Pat Heung had been held, the first at the time of Lap Chun. This festival marks the advent of spring in the Chinese solar calendar, when winter ends, the earth awakens and there is a spirit of renewal in the air. In 1999, the year this tun fu festival was held, Lap Chun fell on February 4. Each village taking part in the Pat Heung ceremony displays at least one tun fu pot which each holds one split-bamboo talisman. Such a practice is not uncommon as, in the dawn of Chinese history, charms were frequently carved on bamboo. At Pat Heung, in 1999, some villages had three and some even as many as eight pots.\n\nDuties for the person(s) performing tun fu ceremonies start well before the due date. He has to decide how many pots are required. Where will they be placed? Why should they be placed here and not there? How many talismans will be put in each pot and which gods will be summoned. Which magical forces will be brought to bear to protect the fung shui? What supplications will be written on the split bamboo talismans? Although the main rules that priests or masters follow may be similar there will be differences in detail, which can be pronounced, as the reader will see later.\n\nThe main ceremony, which the Author attended, was held in Sheung Tsuen (Village), in Pat Heung District, on March 24, 1999, where obviously a great deal of planning and preparation had been necessary before the big day. Here, alongside a 150 or so year-old, small-leaf, Chinese banyan tree, a matshed, approximately 9-metres long by 6-metres deep by 10-metres high, had been erected. For a religious ceremony to take place near a tree, with wood being one of the Chinese Five Elements, is quite natural. The banyan after all, with its trailing roots, gives the impression of multiplication, and from there the move to 'fertility' and the extended Chinese family is but a small", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214710, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 125, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "89\n\ncalled. 'hair vegetable), is a homonym for 'get rich'. This basin-meal lunch was the final item on the agenda for the day that the main ceremony was held.\n\nWith this having taken place on the Wednesday at Sheung Tsuen, and the god, Taai Wong Ye, having been burned the same evening, the bamboo-framed matshed was dismantled the following day. As follow up, the Author thus decided to return to the village three days later. The five tun fu pots filled with sand, with a single, split-bamboo talisman with prayers written on it in each pot, had been placed circling the old banyan tree (see Plate 7). Tied to the top of each talisman was a golden (foil) kam fa and a red ribbon - both auspicious colours. There were remains of joss sticks burned by villagers.\n\n10\n\nFurther follow up visits by the Author revealed that, on the 1st and the 15th of every Chinese month especially, joss sticks are burned near the tun fu pots largely by elderly women on behalf of their families. Nevertheless, the pots often give the impression of not being particularly well looked after. The site is untidy. This is a pity. The new West Railway line, of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, is planned to come into operation in November 2003. The tunnel is due to be finished in 2002. The pots will be left for the full duration of its construction and, if they cease to be effective, a nuen fu ('warming' of the talismans) \"revival ceremony\" may be needed. If so, Taoist priests will again officiate.\n\nComparisons of various tun fu ceremonies\n\nHow does the Pat Heung ceremony compare with other tun fu ceremonies that have been conducted elsewhere (Baker; 1980, 21)? Unfortunately the Author has not been able to find any written information, nor has he heard any oral accounts of tun fu ceremonies conducted outside Hong Kong although he gathers they do take place in places like Taiwan. Often in Hong Kong, like the one mentioned earlier (see Endnote 1) on Ma Wan Island, or those that the Author has seen in places like Sha Tin and Kam Tin, the pots were placed near earth-god shrines. All these ceremonies were much smaller than the main ceremony at Pat Heung described in this paper. No matsheds were erected at these smaller gatherings. Sometimes ceremonies are held close to tsz tongs (ancestral halls), although not normally inside.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214711, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "90\n\ntemples. Nevertheless, in the case of the Pat Heung tun fu ceremony, the party did go into the temple as the reader saw, but only briefly to pay respects to the gods.\n\nAs another example, again in a predominantly Hakka community at Tai Wo Village, also in Pat Heung district, another tun fu ceremony took place on Wednesday 14 April, 1999, near an earth god shrine again close to a banyan tree. The Author attended. This time it was conducted by a single, part-time, feng shui master (not by a Taoist priest) who did not really look the part in his black, Chinese jacket, jeans and the ubiquitous sports shoes. He lives in a village on Tai Mo Shan. However, in this case, a native Cantonese speaker remarked he could understand most of what the officiating person was chanting. The Author, too, could understand a certain amount. A short walk followed this one-hour long ceremony, with the feng shui master leading the party over to the well to offer up prayers to its god. The village has had mains water for twenty years or so. Obviously, in the past, it was important to pay respects to the well god. Yet the practice continues. Precautions need to be taken to safeguard this valuable commodity, understandably, whether the supply is from a well or from the mains.\n\nEveryone present at this Tai Wo ceremony was given a red lai shi, lucky envelope containing $20, which apparently came from the coffers of the village. This appeared not to be too affluent. One wondered at the time, how many onlookers felt great and mysterious things were happening during this ceremony? It was, nevertheless, all followed by a pleasant picnic-style lunch under the banyan. Again, all present ate roast pork, which had previously been offered up to the gods. A government officer informed the Author that the villagers were pleased he was present, taking an interest in their tun fu ceremony. This pleasure appeared genuine. Certainly, everyone was very friendly, including the feng shui master who, in this case, willingly answered the Author's questions without any hint that he wanted to keep the profession a closed shop.\n\nNot only with tun fu but with Christianity, too, different denominations' beliefs and practices vary, sometimes markedly. Even within the Church of England with its high church and low church, and from one clergyman to another - with their different leanings, political or otherwise, variations can be considerable, not to mention far greater", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214718, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "97\n\nin tun fu and other religious ceremonies. 'It is not really worth making a fuss about and upsetting the system', seemed to sum it all up.\n\nBut by comparison, even if western women would probably not accept a 'second-class citizen' situation in a similar way, nevertheless it should be remembered that only men are allowed, still, to become Catholic priests. Women have however been accepted, in a number of cases not so long ago, as clerics into the Anglican (Episcopalian) Church. Again showing leanings towards men, even in the West, the Author recalls his 90-year old English mother saying, in the 1980s, \"It's a pity Mrs Thatcher (the then Prime Minister of Britain) isn't a man. People would respect her more.”\n\nWill tun fu die out?\n\nWith the population of Hong Kong expected to reach somewhere in the region of eight-and-a-half million by the year 2010, this can only mean additional new towns and greater urbanisation in the New Territories. Such growth must bring drastic changes in lifestyles as has happened in the past. Western style bars, karaoke and other hostess services are now not uncommon in the Yuen Long and Kam Tin area, signifying the move towards globalisation (Chu; 1999)(Yu; 1999). In addition, what sociological changes will Route Three Highway, the West Rail Link and a possible new town close by bring to the district (Shum; 1996, 41)?\n\nBut in spite of inevitable changes, Sheung Tsuen, where the main Pat Heung tun fu ceremony that the Author attended was held, is still a pleasant, peaceful village. In spite of paddy fields having long disappeared and derelict cars being dumped together with other eyesores, there is still a country atmosphere. The Koel and other birds call from atop camphor and banyan trees. To an observant person, the number of tun fu ceremonies held in the New Territories still does not appear to be exceedingly small. But with the continuing rapid increase in population and concomitant developments, they are likely to become endangered, although the custom is likely to be around, in smaller numbers, for some time to come.\n\nConclusions\n\nTun fu ceremonies are held because a previously quiet area of the countryside and its feng shui are threatened. Perhaps a hill in which the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214735, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 150, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "After the matshed, which stood close by was demolished, the five tun fu pots were placed circling this old banyan tree at still peaceful Sheung Tsuen. The village rice fields, once nearby, have long disappeared. Derelict cars and discarded material now litter the landscape.\n\nتجمع بها \n\n114\n\nPage 150\n\nPage 151", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214883, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 298, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "269\n\nFURTHER TALES OF THE MAN THE EMPEROR DECAPITATED\n\nP.H. HASE\n\nIn Vols 28, 29, and 34 of the Journal a series of folk-tales relating to Ho Chan, the Warlord of Canton in the late Yuan, and Earl of Tung Kuan under the first Ming Emperor were printed1. Recently a further version of one of the folk-tales has been seen, in the booklet issued by the Kau Sai Hung Shing Temple Restoration Committee to commemorate the re-opening of the Temple (March, 2000), and a translation of this version is given below. It will be seen that this is a version of the same story relayed by Tsim Fo-sang (Journal, Vol. 29), although it differs in a number of details: certain important details are also clearly related to parts of the story collected by Wong Wing-ho (Journal, Vol. 34). It seems likely that this story is essentially a boat-people's story from Kau Sai. Tsim Fo-sang in the years just before the coming of the Japanese used to carry fire-wood from his home village in Sha Tin across the mountains to sell to the boat-people in Sai Kung. It is likely that his version of the story was the one he heard in the late 1930s from his boat-people customers, the version given below is as the story is remembered today in Kau Sai2.\n\n“Talking about Tiu Chung Crag (吊鐘巖), the Sai Kung fisher-people have a strange folk-tale which has been handed down among them.\n\nIn the Tiu Chung Crag there is a cave. It has been handed down that when the first ray of dawn enters the cave, the cave discloses what seems to be a Golden Bell hanging in the air: the island is believed to take its name (Tiu Chung Chau, 吊鐘洲, “Hanging Bell Island\") from this.\n\nIt is said that, at the end of the Sung, there was an official called Ho, who loved walking in the mountains and admiring the sea views. He came to Tiu Chung Chau. He considered the scenery there to be very fine. There was an old banyan tree growing in the centre of the island then, with roots wriggling in every direction like a young dragon. In particular, there were two roots, as thick as a thumb, which pierced through the top of the Tiu Chung Crag.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214885, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 300, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "2\n\n271\n\nwould still grow back! After the master said this, the fisher-people were very despondent, but they continued to hope for a solution.\n\nOne day, the Fung Shui master saw his old dog, Ah Wong, dozing beside the door of his house, and he had a brain-wave, and at last came up with a clever solution. He quickly told the fisher-people what to do to implement his plan. That evening, after the fisher-people had all washed themselves, they returned home to rest until midnight, and then, in the dark, they sailed across to Tiu Chung Chau, and then, under the master's direction, before they cut the roots, they first of all took a large basin of the blood of a black dog, and sprinkled it over the roots. When the roots were then cut off, a great noise like a howl filled the valley. At the same time, the mountain shook. A huge gale sprang up. Sand fell out of the rocks, and the whole hillside collapsed. The old banyan tree fell, and a vast amount of sand and mud fell into the sea. Not long after, this official Ho lost his position, as a result of this. No-one knows where he fled to.\n\nThis story is widely known. Chu Wai-tak (*), in his book “New Views of Old Hong Kong\" () says, “I have attempted to locate this old grave, and have crossed to Tiu Chung Chau many times, going up to the summit of the crag. On the east side there remains the shape of a grave, although nothing is left of it, and so it seems to me that there is some basis for this story.”\n\nNg Chuen-hi (47) Chairman, Kau Sai Hung Shing Temple Restoration Committee”\n\nD. Faure, \"The Man the Emperor Decapitated”, Vol. 28, pp 198-203; P.H. Hase, \"More on the Man the Emperor Decapitated”, Vol. 29, pp 388-289; Wong Wing-ho, \"Yet More on the Man the Emperor Decapitated\", Vol. 34, pp 179-181.\n\nAny further versions of stories about Ho Chan would be very much welcomed.\n\nPage 300\n\nPage 301", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215967, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 266, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "44\n\n18th centuries. It is well documented now that the Manchurian despots who militarily overcame the weakened and corrupt Ming court were adamant in their efforts to rewrite the history of their forefathers in “angelic\" terms. Perhaps more than in any other previous dynasty, the Manchurian emperors destroyed pro-Ming and pro-Hàn culture books and documents, burning also any books which stood against their Manchurian ancestors, and censoring portions of books which touched on these topics.** In numerous cases the contemporary relatives of earlier authors were themselves detained, tortured, and given death sentences. Sometimes the penalties were completely inordinate, causing not only racial tension among the Hàn elite (between those supporting and those fearing this Manchurian method of \"intellectual cleansing\") but also a deep seated resentment among the common people. Understanding the harshness, breadth, and persistence of this long-term policy of the Qing government, the Tàiping Insurgents' anti-Manchu ideology appears to be a long submerged political whiplash against a racist regime.\" Yet it remained another facet of Qing social life during this chaotic period that \"the people become willing partners in their own subjection,\" very much in order to save their own lives as well as those who support them.46\n\nCh'ea's armoury against these tremendous cultural pressures and political dangers was his newly obtained Christian library and the inherent attractions of his alternative form of life. No precise details about what he brought back with him to Poklo in 1856 are available, but later records suggest that he and others had access to at least Ho Tsun-sheen's Introduction to a Comprehensive Commentary to the New Testament (Yīnyuē quánshū jiěshì xù), the Christian version of the Three Character Classic (Sānzì jing), and a translation of the first volume of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, rendered by another Scottish missionary of note, William C. Burns (using the family name Bào, 1815-1868).47 This third work was given the Chinese title Tianlu lìchéng (lit., The Course along the Heavenly Road),48 and was probably read with a great amount of empathetic understanding by Ch'ea as he faced these daunting forces in opposition to his Christian associations and beliefs.\n\n200", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216202, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 501, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "435\n\nVISITING ST JOHN'S ISLAND\n\nPETER STUCKEY AND CHRIS BAILEY\n\nIntroduction\n\nSt John's Island is about 160 kms WSW of Hong Kong. It is about the size of Lantau Island and is the largest of the Chuan Shan Islands which form part of Tai Shan County. The adoption of the name St John's Island appears to be through anglicisation of the Chinese name for the island, variously spelt as \"Shang Chuan Island\" on current Chinese maps, or as \"Sancian\". \"Ilhas de San Joao\" or \"St Jean\" Island on older western maps. Our interest in visiting the island was aroused by the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society's visit to Goa in January 2001. There, in the Basilica of Bom Jesus, in Old Goa, we had seen the preserved remains of St Francis Xavier. His corpse is displayed in an elaborate glass-sided, silver ornamented casket that rests high up on a Florentine marble mausoleum. St Francis, we learnt, had died on St John's Island on the night of 2/3 December 1552, aged 46.\n\nIn view of the local interest two visits were made by members of the HK Branch, one travelling “independently\" and the other through an organised China Travel Services guided tour. Here follow their accounts of the visits.\n\nIndependent travel\n\nTwo Branch members, Rocky Dang and myself, Peter Stuckey, went to the Island on 20th and 21st October 2001. We took a Chu Kong Shipping (CKS) ferry from the China Hong Kong ferry terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, to Xin Hui, leaving at 8:45 a.m. The ferry passes between Macau and Taipa and then follows up the river system past the Yamen Fort to Xin Hui for a fare of HKD 188. At Xin Hui we took a short taxi ride to visit the \"Bird's Paradise.\" Here egrets fly over a huge banyan tree. The tree is reputed to be 500 years old. It extends to cover over a hectare with many trunks formed from the aerial roots descending from the branches of the single organism. Similar trees exist in the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta and in Phimai in NE Thailand.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]